Just fooling around. Scroll down to see some of my Political Cartoons.

SAN FRANSHITSCO

wATCH WHERE YOU STEP

THE STATUE OF SANCTUARY

This is how I first pictured the Statue of Sanctuary drawing but it wouldn't fit in the size allotted by the paper, so the version below is what was published.

WHAT'S YOUR BEEF?

Those pesky Democrats are trying to mess with our favorite burger but it seemed to backfire on them.

MONTESTILTO

New county building requirements put things in odd places.

TOP HEAVY

The county's pension commitments may cause things to flip.

TUNNEL OF LOVE

A CARTOON FOR COLAB

H20 ENFORCEMENT

CRAPDUSTER

JAILBIRD

BUDGETMART

LIFE IN NIPOMO

POLLUTION FREE

THE STATUE OF SANCTUARY

GREEDYLAND

Where your wallet comes first!

OBAMACARS

What if Obama sold cars ?

BUTTONS

My button is much bigger than yours.

A California-Style Border Wall

WELCOME!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

The Governor's gift to you!

KING JERRY'S GAS TAX

How do you like him now?

WATERING THE LAWN IN NIPOMO

It can get quite expensive.

I'LL TELL YOU WHAT!

King Jerry

IMPASSE

Deadlocked

KING JERRY

Water Tunnels

ERASING HISTORY

Now it's just a story

CALIFORNIA HIGH SPEED RAIL

EXEMPT

WORD OF THE DAY

RAISE

PSMFOJNFD

Shell Shocked

CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATS

KING JERRY

Jerry Brown thinks he's the King of California

California Politics

State Flag

California State Infrastructure

Never Enough Reign

KATHY GRIFFIN'S HEAD

Saving Water California Style

My Political Cartooons

I have been drawing a political cartoon for the Santa Maria Sun since 2001 and besides being published in the paper, this is where they end up.

LAKE CACHUMA

Lake Cachuma Trout

Capturing Cow Farts

The Obamacare Grip

DISPLACED DEMOCRATS

Signing Bonus

Who Needs Oil?

No Carts Allowed

The city of Lompoc attempts to do something about stray shopping carts

3rd Party Candidates

This is just proof that I cannot draw Hillary Clinton and I don't do much better with Donald Trump.

The Armpit of the County

NONE OF THE ABOVE

NO FARMS NO FOOD

I won an award!

2015 National Newspaper Association Awards - 1st Place. (This cartoon appeared in 2014 but the award was given in 2015, so technically it's for the 2014 awards that they awarded in 2015, get it? I'm not sure I do but it should probably say 2014 AWARDS instead of 2015. I'll change it sometime.)

2014 (2013) 1st Place - National Newspaper Association

It's the same story for this one. This cartoon appeared in 2013, the award was given in 2014, so technically this is for the 2013 Awards.

2012 NATIONAL NEWSPAPER AWARDS

PERMIT TO BREATH

FOSSIL

ENDANGERED

RAT FINK

G O P DEBATE

CITY OF SURVEILLANCE

M R A P

WORKING . . . HARLY

SANCTUARY

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

IS IT ART?

FAILURE TO LAUNCH

CALIFORNIA LEADS THE WAY

BAGGAGE

NATURAL SEEP

I draw a political cartoon for TheSun - a weekly paper published in northern Santa Barbara County. This blog is where a lot of them end up, whenever I can find time to add them. I hope you enjoy what you see.

MARINES

IS THAT IT?

Say NO !

AB32

Now entering Isla Vista . . .

The Squeeze

Candidates

CNPA AWARD

Sprinkler Patrol

Drought Tolerant Landscaping

Pay Raise

Reservations

Eminent Domain Express

The Shadow Of Crisis

Is There A Difference?

SCARY

AMERICAN GOTHIC

WE ARE NOT AT WAR

National Domestic Violence League

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY BEAUTY

TROJAN HORSE

THRONES

LEAKAGE

MEASURE M

GLOBAL WARMING

MONEY PILE

GOLETA BEACH

NO WATER

NUKES FOR DUMMIES

HOUSING QUESTION

NORTH vs SOUTH

SUPER PANGA

CARBON OFFSET FEES

PANGA BOAT MOONLIGHT CRUISE

ALL ABOARD !

We're headed for a trainwreck!

SKYROCKET

SEQUESTOR THIS!

SANTA MARIA ENERGY

HIGH-SPEED RAIL

FURLOUGH

IT'S YOUR FAULT !!

ORCUTT TRAILS

CIRCLE THE WAGONS

That sinking feeling

GET OUT OF JAIL FREE

GET OUT OF JAIL FREE

S L O W D O W N

Santa Barbara County has decided that when large vessels are traversing the waters of the Pacific Ocean about 12 miles from land along the coastline, they need to slow down to reduce emissions that might drift onshore and add to the pollution of the county air. The next item on their agenda just might be to place underwater signage for whales that transit the same waters, requesting that they 'hold it' until they are well past the county borders, as any methane gas they might release could also spoil the pristine county air.

CHASING THE BIG CARROT

Santa Barbara County CEO Chandra Wallace was being courted by Orange County to come work for them.

In the 20's, Cecil B. Demille filmed his epic movie THE TEN COMMANDMENTS in the sand dunes near Guadelupe. He buried the sets in the sand rather than than remove them. Jump forward to present day when there is an effort to uncover the hidden treasures of Demille's work, and attempts to do this are being stymied by county red tape.

SILENCE !

School Board member Will Smith has been told to keep his mouth shut. There is an $864,000 lawsuit involved.

CNPA 2011 AWARD

SINKHOLE

FALLING LIKE DOMINOES

HIGH SPEED RAIL . . . BUS

YOU WILL COMPLY

NATIONAL HEALTH SCARE

ABEL'S FRESH STRAWBERRIES

RADIOACTIVE TUNA

FRESH FROM JAPAN

END OF FUNDS

DIVISION OF STUPIDITY

NCSD

LOMPOC MESS MONSTER

SYVA SQUEEZE

DOING LESS WITH LESS

DEPOSIT VOTE HERE

EXPLORING DISTRICT ONE

EXPLORING DISTRICT TWO

EXPLORING DISTRICT THREE

EXPLORING DISTRICT FIVE

MORTGAGEVILLE

FARMERS FIELD DITCHWATER RUNOFF

The Regional Water Quality Board wants farmers to treat the water running off of their fields so that it exceeds drinking water quality standards.

DUMP IT ON THE STEPS

BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

LAYERS

HOUSE OF CARDS

We're in TROUBLE!

FEED ME

The county's retirement pension fund is turning into a hungry monster

The INCOMPLETE Ross Mayfield 2011 Political Cartoon Calendar

It's here and moving R E A L S L O W

CHANGE

IT SNOT HEALTHCARE

The Health Insurance Industry is good at squezzing dollars out of it's customers.

SILVER LINING

THE TROUT DERBY

Being that the Santa Maria is dry most of the year, the Steelhead Trout are going to have a bit of trouble making their way upstream.

IN DOG YEARS!

lois capps pledged to respect term limits, but apparently her system of counting is different than most folks.

A PISMO PIGEON

Folks in Pismo want the pigeons removed from the pier because of the mess they leave.

STOLEN

This one got me in hot water with the local Museum of flight because folks opposed to the annual air show turned it around to say that it was one more reason not to have an airshow. I thought I was doing some good by pointing out that the thieves had spoiled the party.

NIPOMO

ENDANGERED SPECIES

TREVOR FEELS SAFE NOW

this is based on one of our customers who just hates to drive into town and feels like he needs protection.

INFLATED RATES

TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL

Due to overcrowding, the county was offering inmates a special deal! One day credit for every two days served.

Sometimes Arnold Let's Me Drive

When Arnold heads off to duties elsewhere, Abel mans the helm of California

The Unobstructed View From The Bridge

Cold Springs Arch Bridge is many times the bridge of choice for those who wish to make their final plunge. Caltrans is in the stages of trying to add a suicide barrier to stop these death dives, but there are some folks in the county who want to preserve the "unobstructed view" from the bridge, and are so passionate about it that they have succeeded in putting the barrier on hold for the time being. Part of the "unobstructed view" they don't see is sometimes on the pavement below the bridge.

AB32 Boneyard

Assembly Bill 32 will retire many useful diesel vehicles.

Drop The Tray

The Candidates

Back On Track ?

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

THIS SANTA BARBARA COUNTY MAP WAS DRAWN FOR THE SANTA MARIA SUN'S 10TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE

HAVE YOU SEEN ME

AIR ATTACK

ASSEMBLY BILL 2062

THE WHITE HOUSE FLY

Here's HOUSEFLY ONE. Barack swatted a fly between takes for a TV interview, PETA went nuts and proclaimed it unfitting behaviour and so now White House Flies have an un-official presidential pardon in the NO FLY-SWATTER ZONE.

A BEAUTIFUL VISTA

After widening the local freeway from 4 to 6 lanes, sound walls were built through parts of the city , blocking the view of the surrounding hills and countryside. I slipped all of our cars into this one. My dad's motorhome, my Transporter, my green '67 bug and my dad's Scion XB.

THE NEW CALIFORNIA STATE SEAL

The new State Seal for The Great Bankrupt State of California

SHAKIN' THE PIG

The state is about to run out of extra funds thanks to our fine legislators.

THE ORCUTT SQUEEZE

Commercial growth has allowed new projects to build to the property line without setbacks.

FLIP FLOP

The County Board of Supervisors keeps changing their minds on where to put Afforbable Housing

HIT AND RUN

The City of Santa Maria has more hit and run accidents than any other city of it's size in the state.

WEEDS

A LARGE CROP OF WEED WAS CONFISCATED BY AUTHORITIES.

SANTA MARIA STYLE

DRYDOCK

A LOCAL EFFORT TO BRING A PRIVATE EDUCATIONAL OFFERING TO SANTA MARIA WAS FAILING TO FIND A HOME AND COULD NOT OPEN.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

With Homeland Security Restrictions, the go kart trck was deemed an incompatible use of airport property. Maybe this design would qualify as compatible use.

PATROLLED BY AIRCRAFT

This one is from long ago and you may have seen it somewhere before. Drawn in 1985, to be exact. This was long before I had any inkling that I would be drawing political cartoons for a newspaper. (As you read this you will discover that this is partly a 'tale of woe' regarding copyright protection of artwork. I created the image above and own all rights that go with it. It is copyrighted and registered with the Library Of Congress. All art on this site is created, copyright protected, and owned by me. NOTHING can be used without my permission. I will persue to the best of my ability any infringing parties) I had the above image displayed here in a larger size, but as I wrote the accompanying text, I realized that a smaller image would be less usable to someone if pirated from this blog. Actually, this image popped into my head in about 1978 and I didn't make the drawing until '85. When I finished it, I took a photo-copy to show to a lifelong family friend who, at the time, was a CHP motor officer. He wasn't home that day, so I left the copy in his mailbox. That was possibly a mistake. He told me later that he took the copy to work and after a shift briefing he held it up and said "hey guys look at this..." it was grabbed out of his hands before he had fully raised it up and put into every copy and fax machine available. That's where I learned to NEVER let stuff get out of your site. Unbeknownst to me, this drawing was spreading like wildfire via office fax machines. The internet hadn't really hit yet. About 2 weeks had passed and I received a telephone call from the California Highway Patrol in Sacramento. Now, remember, that I am oblivious to the fact that this has spread far-and-wide through the CHP / law enforcement community. In a VERY SERIOUS tone, the voice on the phone identifies himself as officer so-and-so "with The California Highway Patrol in Sacramento. We've been trying to track you down." I thought "OH CRAP! WHAT HAVE I DONE?"

"Did you draw that picture of the F-4 Highway Patrol Plane?" "Yes, I did." Now, in a more friendly, enthusiastic and pleasant voice he says "We love it and we'd like to know if there's any way possible that we could get a larger copy for our office here." I said sure, and this exchange led me to the gift shop at the CHP academy. Pat Frye from the the gift shop was interested in possibly having the design on a t-shirt to sell. The only hang up was that she only wanted to pay me a whopping $25.00 for the rights. Most of their items were created by artists working for the state and so the state already had the rights to those works and they didn't have to pay a royalty or license for their use. I told her 'no thank you.' $25 dollars was rediculously low. (Almost an insult)The very next week, an officer from Salinas called her offering to sell her a t-shirt with a 'patrolled by aircraft' jet on it. I was being ripped off by a CHP officer. I gathered the info on who he was, and sent for one of his shirts. It turned out that he had used his own drawing (well one he most likely pirated) but he had used my idea. (It turns out that you can't copyright an idea. You can copyright the drawing you've made expressing an idea, but another person can create their own interpretation of that idea, and that is their work, copyrighted to them.) It turned out that Pat agreed to sell shirts provided by me to the CHP gift shop, as long as she was the exclusive point-of-sale for the shirts. This worked out fairly well. The only problem was with the person printing them for me. They were excellent in quality and craftsmanship, but slow on delivery, so I would get complaints from Pat at the giftshop.As things were progressing I had my drawing registered for copyright with The Library of Congress to have some official documentation of protection that might help keep me from being ripped off. If you have this documentation you can collect legal fees and all profits and inventory from the infringing party.I began to see photocopies of my drawing showing up everywhere. I went on a tour of Southern California Marine Corps Air Facilities and while in the hangar of the Tustin Helicopter Base, getting hearing protection to go out on the flightline, here was a copy of my drawing hanging on the door. I'd heard from folks who said they'd seen it in Japan. A buddy and I went to Santa Paula airport on a Sunday afternoon. In a hangar was a copy of my drawing. I snuck over and signed it when nobody was looking.From this drawing I was able to meet Dan O'bar, a CHP pilot and his observer Sam Rice. They came by our shop to get copies and offered to take me along with them on one of their aerial speed enforcement patrols. That was fun!Their air unit moved from Paso Robles to Fresno. A Fresno Air National Guard pilot told them while on a training mission in Germany he had seen the drawing over there.My Uncle had recently moved to the Santa Cruz area and called to inform us that there were t-shirts with my drawing being sold in a local Thrifty drug store. I had him buy one for my collection of infringers works.About this time, a friend of mine who worked as an FAA Air Traffic Controller at the tower here, showed me a flyer for a t-shirt being sold at the gun show at the L.A. County Fair.This one was an exact copy of my drawing but with some changes that I'm sure they thought would keep them from violating the copyright. They'd made the jet a Sherrif's plane instead of a CHP plane and had used solid colors instead of the linework and stipple I had used.I bought one of their shirts to compare it with what I had created. They were ripping me off. The company was run by a Los Angeles City Fireman.A friend here, Doug Coleman, who happens to be the local police Scientific Investigator (CSI if you like) helped me gather information on these guys. I called them and asked where they got the design. Were they aware that they were violating copyright laws? They stated that they had gotten permission from 'the artists sister." I decided to see if I could stop them. I talked with a local lawyer here, showed him my work and documentation of copyright, and their product. He thought I had a case but referred me to a firm in San Francisco specializing in copyright law.This firm also believed I had a case, and at the start of the conversaton, told me that for a thousand dollars they would write a cease and desist letter. Now I had already done ALL the legwork. I had purchased the infringing work as evidence. I had gotten the names and addresses. I had spoken to them and warned them they were in violation of copyright laws. And now, this firm wants to charge me $1,000 to send a cease and desist letter. By the end of the phone conversation that fee had jumped to $1500. At most I would have gotten $1500 to $2000 dollars from these guys and their illegally gained profits and unsold merchandise. I do all the work, hand it to the lawywers along with $1500 and they write a letter. why can't I have a business like that? I didn't proceed. I would have spent more in lawyers fees than I would have gained from stopping them.I'm learning that copyright protection is only as good as the amount of money you have to enforce it. Unscrupulous people are always going to steal your good idea and sell it for their own gain and you have to be able to outspend them trying to protect your idea. You actually also have to outspend the system so-to-speak.If you have enough money to persue and stop infringers, you win. If you don't, then they win. Actually as soon as they start ripping you off they are winning and they don't have to do anything until you come at them from the legal side of the fence.

STATE BUDGET CUTS

The public was upset that state parks and beaches might be closed due to budget cuts, but listened to the cry of the people and kept funding in place to make sure these parks and recreation areas would stay open.

- - - - - HANDS FREEE - - - - -

You can only talk on a cellphone while driving if it's a 'hand-free' unit. What about other activities?

. . . . .

Santa Maria Airport is a designated aerial fire fighting base where planes are loaded with retardent to drop on the fires. A story in the issue that this cartoon appeared questioned the cost of such operations. A few days after this was published a story ran on a similar subject in the L.A. Times in which they interviewed personnel and found that sometimes these aerial drops are done just for 'show' and are referred to by the crews as 'CNN DROPS' done mainly to give the public the idea that something is being done.

DON'T THROW STONES

When a gentleman complained about code violations on his street, an enforcement officer was sent out to check the situation. Unfortunately his complaint backfired. He is partially paralyzed and uses a truck with a 'work' body on it because it's easier to store and access things in the side cabinets on the truck bed. It seems that it is not legal to park a 'work' truck on the street or in a driveway visible from the street. So this gentleman can no longer park his own truck in his driveway, even though he does not use it in a commercal venture. But it is o.k. to park your lifted 4x4 pickup in your driveway, because that's not a commercial vehicle.

SAY CHEESE!

Red light cameras have finally arrived in Santa Maria

STOP SIGN CAMERA

After adding red light cameras in Santa Maria, people are still blowing through the stop signs.

Budget Deficit

COUNTY BUDGET

GET OIL OUT

Budget Cuts

It never fails. Budget cuts mean the arts got tossed first.

H U V

HOMELESS UTILITY VEHICLE

- - - - - - - - -

THE CHINESE WERE ATTEMPTING TO BUY THE UNION OIL COMPANY. I WONDERED WHAT THE ORANGE UNION 76 BALLS WERE GOING TO LOOK LIKE WITH THE LOGO IN CHINESE. THE FUEL PRICE DATES THIS ONE.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST ..... 2002

This cartoon ran sometime in 2002. It seems several cows got loose in the general vicinity of Guadalupe and Highway One. The Sheriff was there and the Highway Patrol also arrived on the scene. Late in the day, the cows had wandered to a field and were basically laying down in that field. Discussions went on about what to do. A local farmer said he believed the cows, having grazed a bit and layed down, would stay put for the evening. He even volunteered to watch them. In a display of superior judgement. a CHP officer on scene thought they might become a hazard and decided the animals should be put down. The Sheriff left the scene, preferring not to be involved. The cows were put down by the CHP.Eventually the farmer who owned the animals was compensated fair market value.

BOVINE FRIENDLY

TREEHOUSE FOR RENT

During the Michael Jackson trial in Santa Maria, any available vantage point was fair game for the news media to use as a platform for shooting photos. Residents were generously compensated for the use of their property.

MICHAEL CANT PLAY TODAY

THE DUKE

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

My Political Cartoon for the SUN - 3-20-08

This one ran on 3-20-08. Drivers in this neck of the woods have an aversion to traffic circles. They just cant seem to figure them out. The city didn't help matters when they put these traffic circles in, because their EXPERT planning and foresight came up with the design to have TWO lanes of traffic coming up to a single lane traffic circle. The 'me first 'attitude of 90% of today's drivers causes near collisions when they attempt to enter the traffic circle at the same time as the guy in the lane beside them. Instead of merging from 2 lanes into 1 lane prior to arriving at the circle, and thus avoiding these problems, the people who decide these things, decided to make the right lane a 'right turn only' lane, in hopes of solving this problem. Of course most drivers today are MORONS and don't pay attention to the markings and signs on the roadway they are driving on, so we end up with the same mess we had in the first place.

WAKE UP!

SHUTDOWN

GOVT DRUG PLAN

JUNIOR TERMINATOR CLUB

ARNOLD AND ABEL

AFFORDABLE HOUSING

BEN'S HARRIER

SCRUBJAY

Below is my friend, a wild scrubjay. This bird started coming around to visit in 2001. We became friends. It's very smart, very bold and very curious, and we have come to an understanding with one another. If I have peanuts in the shell, crackers, and occasional bits of apple and banana it will come to visit. Sometimes it just comes to hang out, lands on a counter or shelf, puffs up it's feathers and watches us as we go about our day. It used to visit me on a near-daily basis for about 7 years. It's free flying and comes and goes as it pleases. It will land on my head, sometimes my shoulder. If I am not doing what it wants (which is usually getting it a bunch of peanuts to sort through) it will peck me on the head with it's beak as if to say 'come on let's get with the program here and give me a peanut!' I can't tell if it's a male or female. It knows how to communicate to me if it wants some water to drink, or if it wants a cracker from the office. It talks to me, squawking loudly if it wants my attention or it will walk back and forth on the counter and talk in a very soft chirping voice as if it's telling me a story about the kind of day it's been having. Then it's time for a few peanuts and back outside. One day it brought what appeared to be 2 offspring with it as if to show them where to come for a treat. The next day there was a scuffle between the birds and it appeared that one of the younger birds decided to take over. We didn't see the first bird again for months. The other 2 weren't as bold and wouldn't come as close at first but over time I got one of them to land on my hand. The original bird would come back for a visit every few months. The last time I saw it - in late 2012 - it hadn't come around for almost a year. I think that might have been it's last visit...we'll see.

SCRUB PHOTOS

S T E A R M A N P H O T O

I shot the photo below over the Oso Flaco Lake area in the afternoon. I was riding in a Luscombe.